Must Read News Articles –December 26

“India has always been there for the Maldives and will continue our commitment to be the ‘first’ friend,” said the MEA, which also acknowledged that the 2015 visit to the Maldives by Prime Minister Narendra Modi “was cancelled at the last minute due to political developments in the Maldives.”

The upcoming International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) at the Indian National Centre For Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) here is all set to sign up with UNESCO to cater to the worldwide need to build technical and management manpower capacity in marine, coastal sustainability and response to marine natural hazards.

The meeting between the Special Representatives of India and China — National Adviser Ajit Doval and State Councillor Yang Jiechi— on the boundary question on December 22, the 20th so far, was unique for a number of reasons.

The Union government has filed an interlocutory application in the Supreme Court to amend a 2006 order of the court that is being used by the States to appoint “favourites” as Directors-General of Police.

Expressing concern over the decreasing share of capital allocation in the defence budget compared with the revenue component, adversely the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence said the Defence Ministry should overhaul its planning and budgeting mechanism to ensure “a prudent and equitable distribution of funds to revenue and capital heads”.

Less than 25 years after the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was created, its future as a body overseeing multilateral trade rules is in doubt. The failure of the recent ministerial meeting at Buenos Aires is only symptomatic of a decline in its importance.

Steering the ‘smooth and fast-paced’ journey of the insolvency law, the IBBI is now looking to put in place the regime for individual insolvency in a phased manner, according to its Chairperson M.S. Sahoo.

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency — an arm of the World Bank group — which provides non-commercial guarantees, has supported 110 countries with $19 billion in guarantees across 850 projects.

For kinder smart cities (Indian Express)

Urban growth should address needs of children from poorer sections of society